Artist: Saint Caoilian

All posts on Saint Caoilian from Nialler9

With arts festivals reaffirming themselves as a staple in rural areas around the country, the North Cork town of Mallow has established its own via the newly-founded Mallow Arts Collective, with the inaugural installment presenting a programme of music, film, and visual arts that takes in venues and spaces throughout the town.

Among the wider array of programming, the Mallow Arts Collective and Cork music heads #CorkLovesMusic have collaborated on the new music bill for the event, including all-day events and pop-up DJ sets.

The afternoon of Saturday July 29th sees Cork hip-hop legend Stevie G spinning discs in the intimate surrounds of Springfort Hall Café, on the town’s main street. Meanwhile over at St. James’ Church, an all-dayer takes place from 12pm, featuring renowned sound-art/improv group The Quiet Club, troubadour extraordinaire Saint Caoilian, and conceptual artist/rapper Outsider YP, as well as new Cork outfit The Electronic Folk and classical guitar/baritone duo Noel Walsh & Eoin Leahy.

Saturday night sees the music head up the hill to Albert Lynch’s, where post-rockers Ealadha will be providing a stripped-back set, following the release of last year’s ‘Limit of Our Sight’ extended-player, followed by Mallow outfit Stay, supplying folk-rock into the wee hours. Uptown, Ocana’s plays host to live afro-Irish reggae outfit The Light Runners.

Meanwhile, the following night finishes with Bate to Debt, a three-piece blues combo featuring Robbie Barron (The Shaker Hymn/Milky Teeth) at Keppler’s, and Cork music journalist Ronan Leonard leading Maureen’s in a round of Ringo: Music Bingo.

Mallow Arts Festival takes place in Mallow, Co. Cork, from Wednesday July 26th to Sunday July 30th. For set times, the full line-up and more information on the festival, check out their website, and find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Next weekend sees the kickoff of Clonmel Junction, a multidisciplinary arts festival that draws music, comedy, dance, visual art and installation from all over the country to Clonmel and the wider South Tipperary area. A whole host of attractions are lined out for the festival, running from July 3rd to July 10th, and picking a handful of sights to see is tough, but here’s our personal selection of some must-see gigs happening throughout.

1.

Saint Caoilian

Thursday July 6th, 6pm @ Baker’s Bar, free

Everyone loves Caoilian Sherlock. Absolutely everybody. No exceptions. The handsomest boy in Cork music has worn many a hat in his time among the city’s musical rabble: as a DJ, one of the curators of Quarter Block Party, one of Southern Hospitality Board, and as one of the lads from Leeside psych-pop combo The Shaker Hymn. Criss-crossing the roads of Ireland on his lonesome for new project Saint Caoilian, Sherlock taps into his inner troubadour to sweet, injured, almost heartbroken effect.

2.

Lankum

Friday July 7th, 8pm @ Mulcahy’s, €20

The artists formerly known as Lynched have been on the ascendant in recent years, combining respect for a vast array of musical traditions with a distinctly relevant socially-conscious edge. They combine distinctive four-part vocal harmonies with arrangements of uilleann pipes, concertina, Russian accordion, fiddle and guitar. Having appeared on Later with Jools Holland following the release of their first album Cold Old Fire, the band were also nominated for three gongs at the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and have signed with Rough Trade for their second long-player.

3.

Loah

Friday July 7th, 8pm @ Mitchelstown Cave, €30, with Peter Broderick

Meanwhile, over at Mitchelstown Cave on the same evening, one of the vanguard of the new wave of Irish artists takes to stage. Sallay Matu Garnett, aka Loah, is a now well-established presence in Irish music. The Sierra Leonean/Irish singer has been a lifelong musician, classically trained in piano, violin and voice. Her time at Trinity College yielded collaborations with future members of the likes of Little Green Cars, Slow Skies and I Have A Tribe, while subsequent ventures have seen her co-write music on Hozier’s platinum self-titled record, and finish her debut E.P., showcasing her folkish brand of self-named “art-soul”.

4.

Wry Myrrh

Saturday July 8th, 6pm @ Phil Carroll’s, free

The improvisational project of musician/artist Irene Buckley and producer/GASH Collective head Ellen King (aka ELLL), Wry Myrrh weave together off-the-cuff electronica with brooding, foreboding drones and textures. Debuting in January of 2016 at Cork’s Community Print Shop, the duo have since shared a stage with Sophie Cooper, MMOTHS, and the Tor Invocation Band.

5.

Crash Ensemble & Sam Amidon

Saturday July 8th, 8pm @ Old St. Mary’s Church, €30

At the bleeding edge of contemporary Irish music for twenty years this year, Crash Ensemble have been pursuing a number of special events and collaborations. For this event Crash Ensemble will be joined by American folk artist Sam Amidon, who reworks traditional folk melodies into new, indie-friendly forms.

Tickets for all events above are available now at junctionfestival.com, along with info on the full programme.

Caoilian Sherlock has had lots of odd jobs over the years – a potato picker, a Santa Claus, a temp at Virgin Megastores, an inferior barista, a voice “actor”, a regular “actor”, a sexual health teacher, a “moving picture” at a Harry Potter themed wedding. And that doesn’t count the actual music work.

When not promoting music as part of the some-time active Southern Hospitality Board (Quarter Block Party), DJing or playing with The Shaker Hymn, Caoilian Sherlock also writes songs under his Saint Caoilian moniker which moves in a folkier vein.

Inspired by the likes of Paul Simon, John Prine, Bill Ryder Jones and Angel Olsen, ‘I’ll Be A Fool For You’ is a languid lilting track from a man who clearly has many strings to his bow. An EP, The Faraway, is released on May 5th.